Divided We Stand; Germany remains one nation, two peoples.

Byline: Stefan Theil

In the east German town of Wittenberge, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder faced eggs and rocks thrown by a furious crowd. In dozens of other cities, tens of thousands of protesters have revived the weekly "Monday marches" that brought the communist regime to its knees in 1989. This time, their rebellion is aimed at Schroder and what Brandenburg Gov. Matthias Platzeck decries as his "western" law to cut welfare benefits and turn east Germans into "second-class citizens."

Not since German reunification has the mood in the east been this angry and foul. The east is burning read the headline for the east German tabloid Super-Illu recently. As "Ossis" and "Wessis" (east Germans and west Germans) observe the 14th anniversary of their merger next month, no one seems to feel like celebrating. With eastern unemployment stuck at 20 percent--more than twice the western rate--Schroder's plans to cut benefits will hit the region especially hard. But the protesters are also venting years of growing frustration at the region's continued economic backwardness and lack of jobs, for which they, like Platzeck, often blame the west. Galvanized by the anti-Schroder mood, the communists are surging and right-wing parties are on the rise; in Brandenburg state elections this weekend, polls show the communists actually coming out on top. Elisabeth Noelle, head of the Allensbach polling institute, puts it bluntly: "East and west Germans are growing further apart."

It wasn't supposed to be that way. Unification and the passage of time was supposed to bridge old divides, yielding one nation and one people. Today, that goal seems further away than ever. In 1990 the overnight change to western wages, prices and bureaucratic rules killed virtually all of east German industry. Despite more than 1 trillion euros in subsidies since, the east remains an economic black hole. Now comes Germany's first-ever substantial cut in welfare benefits--hitting Ossis disproportionately hard. Those unemployed for longer than 12 months--almost 1 million people in the east--will no longer receive 57 percent of their last income for life, but a fixed monthly rate starting at about 580 euros for a childless single. For the first time recipients will be needs-tested, and it will be harder to turn down a new job. Labor-market experts say the reform, designed to make the dole less attractive, is long overdue. But east Germans sensibly worry that in today's economy, they won't have jobs to move on to.

Blaming the west has thus become popular. At many of the Monday marches, communists from the Party of Democratic Socialism march with right-wing extremists from the German People's Union. Their slogans are virtually identical. Schroder's cuts are poverty by law, as a PDS poster has it; ...